Say that to members of the East Tennessee Paranormal Research Society and you’ll likely get a groan.

According to Amy Chapman of the Tri-Cities chapter, ETPRS is involved in investigation of paranormal phenomena using scientific methods and measuring equipment.

“We only investigate and submit everything we find to debunking,” Chapman said. “Nine out of 10 investigations turn out to be inconclusive or lacking in evidence of paranormal activity.”

They’d rather be called ghost debunkers than ghost busters.

“We don’t base our analyses on feelings expressed by psychics or sensitives, and we don’t do exorcisms,” she said. “If we find a place to be haunted and the property owner wants to be rid of paranormal activity, we recommend they contact a clergyman.”

Conducting an investigation can be a spooky experience, but the paranormal investigators take exceptional steps to ensure that their objectivity and safety is not compromised.

Equipment includes a flashlight, tape recorder, video camera and digital camera. Precautions include removing camera straps (which can look like a vortex if dangled in front of the lens), banning smoking or wearing of perfume or other odor-causing solutions and avoiding weather conditions that can create mist or fog.

“Electronic Voice Phenomena are tape recorded sounds not heard by human ears because they are of such high frequency (above 20 decibels), but they can be captured on a tape recorder,” Chapman said. When taking photos, investigators first ask permission, partly to elicit a vocal response on their tape recorder.

Recordings range from audible to somewhat garbled to simple noise, which is discounted. One example on their Web site (tricitiesparanormal.org) was an EVP recorded at White’s Fresh Foods Warehouse in Johnson City, where car dealer Roy Faircloth was murdered in 1962. An investigator asks, “Do you know you have died?” and a slightly garbled voice replies, “I wish.”

Even so, the conclusion reached by the investigators was, “We could not find any evidence to prove activity.”

A hotter prospect is the Long Island of the Holston in Kingsport, used for new investigator training, where photographs were taken of what appears to be an apparition (a whole or partial human form) floating between two trees, and several other photos of orbs, an unexplained paranormal occurrence in the form of a colored bulb.

Here the conclusion held out some hope: “We have come to a general consensus that Long Island in Kingsport is not haunted, but does have minimal paranormal activity. We will, however, be conducting further investigations to ensure a more precise conclusion.”

A similar conclusion was reached regarding the Sensabaugh Tunnel in Kingsport, where local lore says a baby was murdered and 16 immigrant workers were killed during construction. Here an EVP recording captured the word “Sebastian” when asked for a name. Sensabaugh is currently listed as “limited paranormal activity.”

Chapman is involved in recruiting new investigators in the Jonesborough area and has a couple of investigations under way in Limestone.

“We don’t use animals or children, but we are excited about the new tool of thermal imaging. It has limited application because it records a picture based on body heat, and paranormal activity is usually cold,” she said.

Although some churchgoers might regard paranormal investigation as devil worship, Chapman disagrees. “I am a religious person and I believe God sent his son back as the Holy Ghost,” she said.

She said she first got interested when she had a recurring dream of a woman on a porch, seated in a rocker, reading a Bible. In other manifestations of the dream she saw a woman who lost her husband, a pond set on fire by kerosene poured on it and a white foundation. While driving on Hog Hollow Road with her husband she said she got physically ill when they passed a certain spot. Although she got sick when she tried walking back to the place, she said she found a burnt-out house with a Bible with singed pages lying in front.

The recurring dream stopped. “Sometimes during an investigation I feel a presence, but I don’t get ill anymore,” she said.

The Web site includes a membership application for future investigators.